Public Hearings On Immigration

Published: June 26, 2006

To the Editor:

Let not the House of Representatives take the public's name in vain.

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert insists that nationwide public hearings are not a delaying tactic and that ''we can send an immigration bill to the president this year'' (''House Republicans Schedule Immigration Hearings in Border States,'' news article, June 23).

But hearings set for mid-August make legislative action before the November elections, which are preceded by heavy campaigning in September and October, highly unlikely. And the dueling hearings being planned by Democrats and Senate Republicans are adding fuel to the fire rather than creating the conditions for genuine public input.

For the record, deploying a pseudo-citizen engagement campaign as an obstructionist tactic or as a ploy to score partisan points will only increase the general public cynicism and disgust with the political status quo. Authentic public engagement requires genuine listening and honest, non-manipulative discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of different approaches.

Clearly our leaders in Washington didn't get the memo on how public dialogue for public good actually works.

Ruth A. Wooden
President, Public Agenda
New York, June 23, 2006

To the Editor:

It is generally agreed that most Americans have little sense of history. But the road show that House Republicans are proposing (''The Immigration Road Show,'' editorial, June 22) to delay responsible action on immigration suggests a need for a refresher course.

Have the House Republicans forgotten that every one of them is a descendant of immigrants at some point in their personal history?

What would have happened if, at the time their ancestors entered this country or planned to, they would have been met by a Congress such as we now have? As conspicuous beneficiaries of the American system, members of Congress are showing a mean-spiritedness that is a disgraceful reflection on themselves and on this nation of immigrants.

Theodore S. Voelker
Copake, N.Y., June 22, 2006

To the Editor:

I am a liberal, always-voted-for-Ted-Kennedy (until this year) Democrat who supports the House immigration bill over the Senate bill.

Here we face potentially disastrous greenhouse warming, and Americans are the biggest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, and the Senate bill would add millions to the United States population over the next 20 years (from countries where per capita greenhouse emissions are a tiny fraction of our own), not only from amnesties, chain migration and children born to immigrants, but through guest worker provisions so liberal they are likely to spawn a new industry to import labor for big companies. That, in turn, will prove disastrous for American workers, who will have to compete with the cheap foreign labor.

The United States is already the fastest-growing industrialized nation, and most of that growth is due to mass immigration. We don't need any more.